1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dispensing racks for spools of wire. More particularly, the invention pertains to an improved portable hand carried wire dispensing rack and method of manufacturing same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, various types of racks are known for dispensing spools or reels of wire or other extendible line type material such as wire, cable, rope, and the like.
One commonly used dispensing rack includes a horizontal axle upon which a series of wire spools are rotatably mounted. While such prior art dispensing racks may be provided within a portable frame to provide a convenient means for transporting the series of wire spools to a construction or job site, these devices suffer from a number of disadvantages.
First, in a dispensing rack which supports the series of wire spools on a common horizontal axle, replacement of any one spool requires removal of the axle in order to gain access to the spool being replaced. In the work environment, such assembly and disassembly of the rack leads to lost time and aggravation to the user. Second, the supporting of a wire spool with a axle extending through an axial hole of the spool facilitates unnecessary dispensing or entanglement of wire when a pulling or dispensing force on the wire spool is discontinued causing the wire spool to spin freely.
To solve some of the aforementioned problems, several attempts in the prior art are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,610 issued to Walsh discloses a portable wire dispenser having support members for supporting wire spools along outer circumferential edges of the spools. A rotatable member is engaged across the tops of the wire spools to retain the wire spools on the support members. However, where the rotatable member of Walsh extends horizontally across a plurality of wire spools, this device will not accommodate spools of varied size. Further, even within particular size classifications of industry standards of wire spools, it is known that the wire reels or spools made by different manufacturers can differ in diameter by 1/8 to 1/4 inches.
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the dispensing rack and method of manufacturing of the present invention solves all of the aforementioned problems and employs a number of novel features that render it highly advantageous over the prior art.